Royal Opera House to appeal in damaged hearing case

The venue’s management say that their musicians were told to wear ear protection during loud performances

NICK ANSELL/PA

Tuesday October 23 2018, 12.01am, The Times

The Royal Opera House is to appeal against a ruling that a viola player’s hearing was seriously damaged during a performance of Wagner’s Die Walküre.

Chris Goldscheider won a High Court case earlier this year that lawyers predict will have profound implications for the live music industry if the ruling is upheld by the Court of Appeal.

The judge agreed with Mr Goldscheider at an eight-day hearing that the volume during a rehearsal of the opera at the Opera House in Covent Garden in 2012 had caused him a life-changing injury. The court rejected arguments from lawyers for the Opera House that an insistence that musicians wear ear protection during loud sections of a performance was sufficient to discharge the venue’s duty of care. Arguments